2013: The Jaguars finished with their first 40-win season since 2003 and advanced to the NCAA Regional tournament.

2014: USA opens the season at home on Feb. 14 with a three-game series against Tennessee Tech.

Six Degrees: The Jaguars travel to New Orleans to play the University of New Orleans in a three-game series from Feb. 21-23. Former Waynesboro players Jason Walck and Scott Biesecker are former UNO assistant coaches.

WAYNESBORO — John Barr took a big step forward in his baseball and academic life.

The Waynesboro Area Senior High School senior signed a letter of intent to attend University of South Alabama in Mobile, Ala., where he will play baseball and major in engineering.

Barr becomes the 16th Waynesboro varsity baseball player to go on to play baseball at a NCAA Division I college or university and the second year in a row. Cole Warrenfeltz is a freshman at Eastern Kentucky University.

“It was a good fit,” Barr said Friday. “They have a good coaching staff. I like their pitching philosophy. They have built pitchers who have similar mechanics to mine.”

Barr said he wanted to go to school in the south, where the weather is warm year-round. Mobile is on the Gulf Coast and is close to New Orleans, La. and Pensacola, Fla.

“That was a big sell,” said Barr, who visited the school in August and made a verbal commitment not long after that.

Barr, who also has played on the Waynesboro American Legion team and a travel team during the summer, was 7-2 with an earned run average of 1.84 as a junior in 2012 for the Waynesboro Indians. Barr allowed 15 earned runs in 57 innings pitched. He struck out 49 batters and walked 15.

“It’s awesome,” said Waynesboro coach Greg Chandler. “John has started for us for three years. You hope to see them go through the program and move on to the college ranks.”

Chandler lauded Barr’s ability as a hitter as much as his pitching prowess. He added that Barr has shown remarkable durability in throwing the baseball, which may well come from his involvement in his “other” sport — swimming.

“We moved John to shortstop when Cole was recovering from an injury,” Chandler said. “He was playing outfield before that. Playing in the infield has given John a feel for the total game. He has a better perspective on pitching.”

Barr already knows what’s in store for him.

“My first year I will work out of the (bullpen),” he said. “As a sophomore, I’ll work as a closer.”

Barr, who has been working on his curve ball but is known more for his fast ball and his delivery, will continue to perfect his signature pitch, the split-fingered fastball.

“It was a pitch I always threw in Little League because my hand wasn’t big enough to throw hard,” Barr said.

Barr isn’t the first Waynesboro baseball player to play college baseball in the state of Alabama. Kyle Walck played for the University of Alabama in the late 1980s.